At the end of last year, we sat down with James Richardson Jr., the executive director and one of the founders of 4Horsemen Rehabilitation Services, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that supports formerly incarcerated people as they transition back into their communities. The program provides long-term mentorship, life skills training, and coaching, and connects participants with employment opportunities and other services such as health care and housing.
He talked about the challenges people face when reintegrating into the community after finishing a prison sentence – finding work and housing, navigating systems to do basic things like getting an ID card, all in a society that is disinclined to support people who have been justice involved.
As James’s experience demonstrates, when people “don’t know what to ask,” it can be paralyzing. He demonstrates how, when people learn to ask their own questions and advocate on their own behalf, people facing overwhelming challenges can begin to navigate complex systems and see the importance of making their voices heard. It can provide a powerful pathway for action.
Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
How did you come to found your organization?
To understand why I started 4Horsemen, I have to start with who I am. I spent 30 years in the United States Army and eventually became a Command Sergeant Major. For my 30-year career in the United States Army, my younger brother probably spent a good 20 of those years in and out of prison, largely fueled by an addiction to drugs.
What bothered me most about seeing my brother and his struggles was when he was doing well, when he wasn’t using drugs, the world didn’t help him. When he was not doing well, there was no one standing in the breach willing to help him and try to get him on his feet.
I wanted to continue to give back after serving in the military. I wanted to do something that would give me peace and give me something that I can really like about being me.
Our organization works with people that are justice-involved, and we help them try to navigate society as they’re reintegrating back into the world. We work with people ages 17 to 70, but my specialty is working with people in their mid-30s to late-50s. That seems to be the time when people start to say, “I’m tired of the life I’m living and I want to do something different, but I have no clue how to get to different.”
We work with people one-on-one and in group settings. We learn how to dream about creating a future, and then how to create goals based on that dream, and help people develop themselves so they can have hope for their tomorrows.
Under community supervision there is often a requirement to find work quickly. In practice finding a job can be nearly impossible. James talked about how difficult it was for his brother to find work.
My brother finally found a job but didn’t put his prison record on the application. It was the only way they would hire him. He worked 60-hour work weeks for a month, then, when his background check came back, they fired him on the spot.
Can you imagine if, for six months, five times a day, you went and filled out job applications and went on job interviews, and for six full months you got told no? Can you imagine how low you would feel? You can’t even get a job washing dishes? Most people, they don’t want a hookup, they just want a chance.
How do you use the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) in your work?
We have a 16-week course that we use to talk about personal development. We cover lots of topics: communication, anger management, applying for a job.
We spend the first class talking about how to be an advocate for yourself. The point is to help people understand that you have a voice and don’t be afraid to ask. I use the QFT in that first class, and then throughout the 16 weeks I use different opportunities to come back to the method.
For example, how to apply it if you’re a parent and you’re trying to work with your school’s teachers, or when figuring out how to communicate better and not fight with your loved ones, or creating a resume and going to a job interview. In that case, when an interviewer is asking, “So what are your questions?” They have no clue what to ask.
I connect it in all kinds of ways so they’re really clear that what they’re learning is a skill set in asking questions. I weave a lot of that throughout everything that I’m doing.
What do you see as the importance of having people formulate their own questions and advocate for themselves?
I love that questions get people to advocate for themselves. That is the best way to give people autonomy. That’s the best way for people to just be like,”‘I own me. If I’m going to succeed or if I’m going to fail, it’s going to be on me.”
One of the people that I serve is 65 years old. He spent 42 years in prison. Before that he had one job, as a paperboy, in his life. When he got out in April, he was lost about everything. Afraid of everything. He was afraid to even apply for a job. He was being turned down for even entry-level positions because of his background.
He’s got arthritis, diabetes, and other health issues. He didn’t qualify for Medicaid, Medicare, at first, because he didn’t know how to fill out the paperwork. Because he had never paid into Social Security, he had no Social Security benefits.
I was showing him how to advocate for himself to get an EBT card [used for SNAP, formerly known as food stamps] and how to advocate to get his driver’s license again. Just basic things. It opened up a new world for him.
Somebody like that who’s going through all these hardships is just figuring out how to be a good advocate for himself.
Just showing him: Pick up the phone, continue asking questions, continue looking for the person who’s going to get to the “yes,” helped him. Saying, you can do this, this is not outside the scope of your reality.
Yesterday, I had a phone call with another of my clients. His wife was pregnant, and she just lost the baby. That’s what he wanted to talk about. His biggest thing was, I didn’t understand what the doctors were telling her, and I don’t know what I need to do to help her.
I just reminded him, ask some questions. What’s the most important thing you might want to know? That started him thinking of other things [he should ask]. And I said, as soon as you get off the phone with me, have your wife call the doctor and make another appointment for her.
It’s just another example of being your own advocate.
Direct service providers will often use the QFT in creative ways that are adapted to their audience and context. How have you facilitated the QFT and made the structure of the process your own?
One way I’ll use it is I’ll pick someone out of the group and find out a little bit about them. I’ll get them to think of a situation in their life, maybe related to relationships, or having kids in school, or looking for a job, or going to the doctor’s office. I’ll ask them to choose the scenario that they want to focus on. [We call this the Question Focus].
Then I’ll ask, so what are your questions about that topic? What other questions can you come up with? Then I’ll ask everyone in the group to help that person ask more questions. What is something that you think he should know? So in that way, we’re working on one person’s problem, but we’re doing it collectively. And everybody is gaining the information from that one problem. All of them together will come up with questions. We’ll talk about open- and closed-ended questions, and how both styles work.
Once we have a list of questions, then I’ll tell them, okay, well, you know your interview is only going to be 15, maybe 30 minutes long. So I’ll teach them how to prioritize questions. What are the questions that are really important? As a group, we come up with the three or four questions that are most important out of those 10 to 15 questions.
As a facilitator, the very first thing that you need to do is establish trust. No one is going to care, unless they trust that you have their best interest at heart. I think that this format of this technique lends itself to my style of facilitating.
I pull people’s own experiences out, because what I’ve learned as a facilitator is that it hits home when the guy to your left and the guy to your right are communicating with each other, and I’m quiet. They’re discussing the subject that I brought up, but learning lessons by coming to their own conclusions. It sticks more. It is so much better when they learn it themselves, when they grasp it from their perspectives.
The other way I’ve adapted the QFT is that I don’t show slides. Not all people feel comfortable reading and writing. Some people can’t read but won’t say it, and they’re not interested in things that start to look and feel like school. What I have learned is that for my population it goes over better the less formal I make it. I want them to feel comfortable in a group setting, showing what they do know and can do, based on where they are.
What do you wish other people knew about your work?
Everybody deserves a second, or a third, or a fourth chance. Everybody has to eat. Everybody has to clothe themselves. Everybody has to find shelter. And if you don’t give people a second chance, or a third chance, or a tenth chance, then they’re going to find those basic needs in one way or another. So we as a society get to choose how the people within our society act. If you care about building the community back up, you can’t do that without supporting the people who are justice involved.
A 65-year-old man, no Social Security, living on his cousin’s couch because he can’t afford a bed at $750 a month, that’s just heartbreaking. This man served his prison sentence and he’s done. Let’s make sure that he can live a basic life. That man doesn’t want much. There isn’t a wage right now in the state of Georgia that would afford him more than a bedroom, and he can’t even afford that right now, working full time.
Everybody is deserving, and sometimes people don’t get the lesson on day one. Be forgiving of people.
Visit 4Horseman to learn more.
For resources on learning how to use the QFT in your own work, click here.